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How to Download Free Windows eBooks on Infopackets

by Dennis Faas on December, 28 2012 at 08:12AM EST

Infopackets Reader Jim H. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I'm trying to download the free eBooks online your website (such as the Windows 8 Guide eBook, the PC Maintenance Handbook, and the Windows 7 Pocket Guide, etc), but I'm having trouble. When I click on the orange 'Request Now' button to download the book, it is asking me for my name, a business email address, my company name, etc. Why do I have to enter all this information? How do I download the free eBooks? "

My response:

The answer to this is two-fold, and I'll try and break it down. Note that I've also compiled a very nice (and somewhat large) list of eBooks on Windows 7, 8, etc being offered through our website, which is further down this article. But first, let me explain a few things.

First and foremost, the eBooks you are referring to are offered from a third-party website (Tradepub). To download the eBooks, you first need to fill out a form. This type of web form / request is called an offer.

Some questions in the offer (form) may not be entirely applicable to you. If the form isn't complete, the request cannot be processed (as the system is automated), and you can't get the eBook -- however, there are ways around this, and I'll explain that below.

That said, Infopackets is credited a small amount for every qualified lead generated by completing an offer. Leads are qualified according to publisher criteria, which means that we don't receive credit for every person requesting an eBook (very few, in fact).

The revenue Infopackets receives is used to pay our writers and staff, which allows us to continue publishing. It doesn't cost anything but your time (about 3 minutes) to fill out the form. This is a great opportunity for you to support our website and get something valuable in return for your time.

If you have questions about your personal information and privacy with respect to filing an offer, I'll address that further down -- just keep reading.

Note that all eBook requests are honored if and only if the form has been successfully completed and processed, regardless of whether or not the lead is qualified. I will explain details on how and why the form is completed below.

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How to Complete the Forms (And Why)

With the technical details out of the way, I understand many of you are having trouble completing the form to request the free eBooks.

For example, the form may be asking you for a business email address, but you don't own a business and you can't leave this field empty because the form wouldn't be complete, and thus, you can't get the eBook.

Or, perhaps the form is asking for the number of employees at your work -- but you're not a CEO, so this doesn't apply to you, either.

Or, the form isn't accepting the phone number you input because it's not in the North American phone number format AAA BBB CCCC.

One way to get around this issue is to "fudge" the information for the fields which you normally cannot complete.

In the case where it's asking for "business email address" (and you don't own a business), you could instead input your regular email address, or use a secondary email address.

Note that you need to enter a valid email address because the eBook link will be sent to you by email.

Once you complete 1 offer, all the other offers (eBooks) you want will use the same information. Therefore, you don't need to re-enter all your information again.

It's also worth noting that many users that file for multiple free / giveaway / sweepstakes Internet offers often use a secondary email address (I.E.: one that isn't their primary email address). Often this is done to protect the users' privacy.

Here's another example regarding the form input: where it's asking for you to choose the number of employees for your company (but you don't own a company) and there is no option to choose "0" for number of employees: you can choose another option, like "1-4" employees.

And, another example: if it's asking you for a phone number and it won't take your input, try entering a North American phone number using the format of AAA BBB CCCC, where A = area code (3 digits), B = 3 digits, C = 4 digits.

The list goes on.

Whether or not you choose to "fudge" the fields in order to complete the offer is entirely up to you. I'm not advocating it -- I'm just telling you how the form operates and why users are encountering issues trying to complete the form, so all this makes sense.

The truth is that we have users from all around the world -- all from varying backgrounds, etc, which can complicate form input. That said, this is a frequently asked question and there's no simple answer: hence, the reason for writing this somewhat lengthy explanation. Let's hope it was worth the effort!

The List of Free eBooks

As I mentioned in the top of this article, I have put together a nice list of eBooks that are being offered online our website through Tradepub. I've categorized the list according to operating system and use.

Note that there are limits on how many eBooks can be ordered per month and per person, so if it's not available, try again later.

Each link below leads to a product description page. To get the eBook, click on the orange "REQUEST NOW" button on the top of the proceeding product page.